As of late (in the past three days) I have started defining my interest in digital activism in terms of its transformative capacity. By transformative I mean the ability of digital activism to alter the political status quo. I am not interested in digital campaigns that seek to gain victories within the current political system (many grassroots legislative lobbying campaigns in the United States fall into this category). I am interested in campaigns that seek to change the political rules or expectations within a society.

So, what is the connection between transformative digital activism and grassroots digital activism? Why is grassroots digital activism more likely to be transformative? First, some definitions. Grassroots digital activism is defined as methods by which ordinary citizens to use digital tools to affect political change. It's complement is institutional digital activism, which is defined as methods by which formal institutions (mostly NGOs) use digital tools to affect political change.

My proposition is that ordinary citizens are more likely to take part in transformative activism than institutions are. This is based on the assumption that ordinary citizens are more likely to challenge the status quo than institutions. This is because institutions have legitimacy and credibility and financial resources and are recognized as part of society. They are stakeholders in the status quo.

Citizens exist within a society but they have not necessarily committed to the status quo. They do not necessarily have legitimacy or credibility of financial resources. They have less at stake in the continuation of the the status quo. (This is not to say that institutions cannot be transformative, only that they are less likely to be transformative.)

Because there is a low bar of entrance to their use, digital tools transmit the means of political change to the fringes in the form of tools that allow citizens to disseminate a message of change and organize politically. These tools empower people on the edge of or outside of the status quo to be forces for political change. When these marginalized people have more political power, then political transformation becomes more likely.